America's Long Weekend Of Freedom Is Here! Tabs For Friday, November 1, 2024

No, you don't actually have Monday or Tuesday off. You should, though!

Tabs gif by your friend Martini Glambassador!

Inflation came in lower yet again in September, meaning the Fed will almost certainly do another reduction in interest rates when it meets next week hooray (CNBC) The GDP grew again in the third quarter, too, and those wild-eyed radicals at the Wall Street Journal crooned that the next president will “inherit a remarkable economy.” Hey! (this is Yr Wonkette saying this) We should probably elect someone who’ll build on that, not piss it all away with stupid shit like tariffs, mass deportations, and a massive recession “for our own good.” (WSJ gift link)

The kids who survived Sandy Hook as first-graders will be voting in their first elections this year. Sigh. (Washington Post gift link)

Related: A study by the Commonwealth Fund comparing the US with other countries found that the US has the highest firearms mortality rates in the world, and that’s also true of most US states, too. Mississippi’s gun mortality rate is almost double that of Haiti. “Death rates due to physical violence by firearm in U.S. states are closer to rates seen in countries experiencing active conflict.” So it goes. (Commonwealth Fund)

Donald Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape from 2005, which somehow didn’t end his candidacy when it surfaced in 2016, is suddenly viral again on TikTok as Gen Z finds out about stuff their parents didn’t mention when they were 10 years old. One popular TikTok video notes “This is who fathers with daughters are voting for.” Hey, remember when that one dickwad unendorsed Trump so he could look his teen daughter in the eye, then weeks later went right back to supporting Trump? (Teen Vogue)

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Hero Rep. Jason Chaffetz Un-Undorses Trump, Ready For Hillary! ('s Pre-Peachment Hearings)

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Flash floods in Spain have killed at least 158 people, mostly in the Valencia region, and climate change remains very, very real. (AP)

Georgia is the latest state to have to debunk a fake video, probably Russian in origin, claiming rampant voter fraud. In the bogus video, a person claiming to be a Haitian immigrant said he voted multiple times for Kamala Harris, which Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger simply can’t be done because of election system safeguards. (CNN)

A Pennsylvania state judge put on hold the lawsuit seeking to stop Elon Musk from bribing incentivizing swing state voters with lottery for a million bucks, while a federal court considers taking it. Musk can now resume his daily drawings. The case is unlikely to be resolved until after the election. (Reuters)

The Machinists Union strike against Boeing is likely to end after eight weeks; the company offered a 38 percent wage increase over the next four years, and while members voted down an earlier offer last month, this time the union members seem much happier with the offer. They’ll vote Monday, and if the contract is ratified the union will return to work. Union lawyers must first ensure no doors blow out of the agreement. (Seattle Times)

Electric vehicle sales saw higher growth yet again in the third quarter of 2024, up five percent from the second quarter and up 11 percent over last year at this time. EVs were 8.9 percent of all new vehicle sales in Q3, prompting Cox Automotive, the Kelley Blue Book people, to say that getting to 10 percent soon is within reach. Weirdly, Cybertruck sales are quite strong. Also, now that it’s overcome early glitches with its Ultium battery packs, General Motors took second place in EV sales after Tesla in Q3, selling a whole lot of its new Chevy Equinox EV, which with federal tax credits can go for under $30,000 for the base model. Even so, sales of the bullshit “EV slump” narrative also continued strong, fuck those guys. (Heatmap News)

Also, Elon Musk never really intended to produce a smaller, more affordable EV to compete with Chinese models; he was just yanking errebody’s chain the whole time. (Heatmap also)

Schools all over the US are saving assloads of money by installing solar panels, thank you Joe Biden and the Inflation Reduction Act for that. (Canary Media)

A town in Utah that used to depend on a coal-fired power plant received a federal grant to open a new low-carbon cement plant that will use waste rock from the next door copper mine to produce Portland cement, which until recently has been a huge source of CO2 emissions. (Canary Media)

EVAN HOPPING IN! At my Friday place this week, it’s MY deep dive into all the MAGA men having hilarious tantrums about their wives secretly voting for Kamala Harris, plus my weekend-before-election-day WE CAN TURN THE PAGE AND MOVE ON FROM THIS MOTHERFUCKER pep talk/thinkpiece. You come by, read, subscribe, share! [The Moral High Ground]

BACK TO DOK! What’s that you say? Enough news, time for a Thornton pic? Well, sure, but I think he’s judging us.

OK, go do your Friday things! Eat the secret Halloween candy! What, you thought we didn’t know about the secret Halloween candy?

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